Security Environment in Asia <RIETI Featured Fellow> SOEYA Yoshihide

Some of you may be enjoying Thanks Giving Holiday. Here at RIETI, we are starting many new projects. One of such is the on-line forum "Corporate Governance Japan." It is our new web project to report you fresh observations and promote lively debate about ongoing change within Japanese corporations. We are also going to host a policy symposium on corporate governance in January 2003. We will keep you updated. On December 18, we are hosting a policy symposium on "Asian Security Environment after the 9.11 Terrorism." Taking this chance, RIETI Report interviewed faculty fellow Yoshihide Soeya, what is the significance for RIETI to take up security issues.

SOEYA Yoshihide
Dr. Soeya has been a faculty fellow since 2001. He is also a professor of political science, faculty of law, at Keio University. After receiving his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1987, he worked as a lecturer at Sophia University (-1988), assistant professor at Keio University (1988-91), associate professor at Keio University (1991-95). He was a visiting fellow at the East-West Center as an Abe Fellow (1993-95). He became a professor at Keio University in 1995. His expertise is politics and security in the Asia-Pacific region, US-China-Japan relations, Japan's external relations and diplomacy. His publication includes "The Cold War in Asia: The Korean Peninsula as a Structural Nexus and the Role of Japan," The Ending the Cold War in Korea: Theoretical and Historical Perspectives (edited by Chung-in Moon, et.al.) Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 2001,and many more.

RIETI is hosting the policy symposium on "Asian Security Environment after the 9.11 Terrorism." Taking this occasion, RIETI Report interviewed Dr. Soeya on the current security situation in Asia.

RR: The prime focus of RIETI's research activities has been on economic issues. What is the significance for RIETI to take up security issues?

Soeya: The fact that economy is coming under greater influence of security issue can be cited as a major reason. A particularly important factor is that the United States is putting the top priority on security policies. The global security environment including that of the Asia-Pacific region has changed drastically after the terror attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. The upcoming symposium will bring together five security specialists, each from Northeast Asia, Central Asia, South Pacific, South Asia and Southeast Asia, to present views and discuss on security issues based on their respective regional perspectives.

Terror attacks themselves can be deemed as an antithesis against the liberalism, an idea centered on the West. A large-scale terrorism has potential to melt down the liberal economic system. In fact, the Sept. 11 incident has destabilized stock and financial markets. U. S. President George W. Bush has expressed determination to squarely confront terrorists. How such U.S. policies are viewed in each Asian region and what changes the security environment in the Asian region has undergone after the Sept. 11 incident will be important themes in the symposium. The symposium will offer lots of subjects that would provide hints in thinking the future of Asia.

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For the information on the symposium on "Asian Security Environment after the 9.11 Terrorism", Click here

Round 5:
"Abuses of Economics by the FCC" by Nobuo Ikeda, Senior Fellow, RIETI

FCC published a report that recommends securing "exclusive rights" for spectrum and trading it as private property. They justify it because the spectrum is scarce. No part of standard economics supports such a strange claim. Scarcity has nothing to do with property rights. Spectrum should be opened without license because it is most efficiently used as "commons."
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RIETI Senior Fellow Ichiro Araki is going to speak at the "Tenth Roundtable with the Government of the PRC, China in 2003: global involvement and domestic market expansion" hosted by the Economist magazine, to be held on December 4 and 5 at Grand Hyatt, Beijing.

RIETI Fellow Mieko Nakabayashi is organizing a roundtable on the US-Japan budget process and its affect to the bilateral relations, to be held on December 5 at SAIScf Kenney Auditorium. This roundtable is to prepare for the open conference on the same theme, which will be held in spring/summer 2003. The specialists of various fields such as trade, ODA and defense policy of the U.S. and Japan will participate. They include people like Mike Mochizuki and Nathaniel Thayer. The roundtable aims to present a quantitative comparison of specific budget items in the each area and to examine how both countries' budget process and outcomes affect the bilateral relations. Nakabayashi, who worked as a staff member for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee for 10 years, hopes to analyze the presentations made by those of various backgrounds to see if there are any patters in budget process of each field. She also hopes this conference would be a good intellectual training for the each participant who is not usually engaged in budget making process.